They’re Clicking Off the Court

The Lakers don’t roll their eyes anymore. They laugh together after games, and sometimes before them.

They don’t fear Shaquille O’Neal’s bad mood, forced because of a tact Kobe Bryant took the night before. And they don’t measure Bryant’s quiet, caused by O’Neal’s rants.

Those things don’t happen anymore. Bryant is happy. If O’Neal isn’t, more likely it is because his feet are killing him, and not because of something Bryant did or didn’t do.

“It makes for good harmony,” Phil Jackson said before Wednesday night’s victory against the Indiana Pacers, the Lakers’ sixth consecutive win.

The basketball’s not bad, either. But they won two championships at each other’s throats. So this is more about living in peace than playing with it.

“I compared it the other day to like a dog and a cat,” Jackson said. “The dog goes around and makes the cat hump its back and spit a little bit. Then, all of a sudden, when they get to be friends, the cat starts bouncing around all over the dog. That’s the way it appears to be, with Kobe being the cat.”

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Bryant may have gained a few more fans with his 360-degree dunk Tuesday in Detroit, but he scared Jackson when he landed hard on his backside. Jackson often pleads with Bryant to be more careful.

“I thought that was a little bit excessive,” Jackson said. “But he came out of it OK. That’s how you jam your feet. It’s also the way you sell tennis shoes, I suppose.”

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Dick Jauron is next.

He may have coached the Chicago Bears to a 13-3 record, the NFL Central Division title and a first-round bye in the playoffs, picking up a contract extension along the way, but there are greater forces at work here.

The Lakers are on their way, and they are three for three in shortening careers on a four-NFL town trip.

They began in Detroit, where the Lions canned defensive coordinator Vince Tobin, merely putting off the bad news for Marty Mornhinweg.

Then they landed in Indianapolis, where the Colts fired Jim Mora.

This morning they arrived in Minnesota, where the Vikings had fired Dennis Green.

The Lakers get to Chicago early Saturday. Jauron packs by noon.

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The Lakers have never won road games on successive days by 20 or more points. They beat Detroit by 29 on Tuesday night, and Indiana by 19 on Wednesday.

Tim Brown